Why are single bonds length longer than double and triple bonds? Why are triple bonds the strongest?
1 Answer
Think of electrons (the which form bonds) as the glue that chemically binds atoms together....
Explanation:
The modern chemical bond is conceived as a region of high electron density between two positively charged atomic nuclei, such that internuclear repulsion is negated and a net attractive force results between the nuclei and the surrounding electron cloud.
In a single bond electron density is concentrated between the bound atoms....and it is to this phenomenon that we refer when we say that covalent bonds involve the sharing of electrons between atoms. In multiple bonds, electron density is concentrated in regions outside the atom-atom vector. And because there is more interaction between the electron-cloud and the bound atoms, these bonds are STRONGER...
As a chemist, as a physical scientist, you should consider the data...and the carbon-carbon single and multiple bonds provides a metric...
Are the data consistent with our argument?
